Dallas-Fort Worth home prices grew at less than half the nationwide rate in the first quarter.

D-FW median home sales prices were up just 1.4% from a year ago. That was the smallest such gain for the area in almost eight years in the closely watched quarterly home price report by the National Association of Realtors.

Nationwide home prices were 3.9% higher than in first-quarter 2018, according to the just-released study of 178 U.S. metro home markets.

"Homeowners in the majority of markets are continuing to enjoy price gains, albeit at a slower rate of growth," Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun said in the report. "A typical homeowner accumulated $9,500 in wealth over the past year."

D-FW median home sales prices in the first quarter were $254,300 — just $500 below the nationwide cost.

The highest first-quarter home sales prices were all in California markets: San Jose ($1,220,000), San Francisco ($930,000) and Anaheim ($800,000).

"There are vast home price differences among metro markets," Yun said. "The condition of extremely high home prices may not be sustainable in light of many alternative metro markets that are much more affordable.

"Therefore, a shift in job search and residential relocations into more affordable regions of the country is likely in the future."

In Texas, the highest home prices were in the Austin area, at $303,400.

D-FW had the smallest year-over-year home price increases of the major Texas metro areas in the first quarter.

The largest median price increases were in the San Antonio area, which was up 3.5% from first quarter 2018.

Counting smaller Texas markets, prices were 13.9% higher in Wichita Falls and rose 11.6% in Beaumont from a year ago.

Home prices were higher than a year ago in 86% of the metro areas the Realtors tracked in the first three months of the year.

Home price increases in North Texas have slowed to a trickle in the last six months as more houses have come on the market and sales of high-priced properties have slowed.

Through the first four months of 2019, median home sales prices in the area are just 2% ahead of where they were a year ago. And total home sales by real estate agents are down 1% from the first four months of 2018, according to data from local Realtors.

Even with the slowdown in appreciation, D-FW home prices remain at record levels and are about 50 percent higher than they were a decade ago.